Book Series Studies and Texts, vol. 115

La Vengeance de Nostre-Seigneur

The Old and Middle French Versions

A.E. Ford (ed)

  • Pages: 245 p.
  • Size:175 x 260 mm
  • Language(s):English
  • Publication Year:1993

  • € 44,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-0-88844-115-7
  • Hardback
  • Available


Summary

Verse versions, prose versions, chansons de geste, mystery plays, book-length documents and one-page résumés, all atest to the widespread diffusion of the apocryphical Vengeance of Our Lord throughout the medieval Christian world. This volume continues the presentation for the modern reader of just a small fraction of the known materials: the prose texts of the Old and Middle French versions of the Vengeance de Nostre-Seigneur. So far, fifty-four manuscripts of the French prose texts have been identified, representing nine independent but interrelated traditions. Each version brings together, yet gives varying importance to, elements related to two unconnected historical facts: the destruction of the city of Jerusalem by the romans, and the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity. The documents intertwine materials narrating the punishment and death of Pilate, the curing of an emperor through St.Veronica's portrait of Jesus and, of course, the siege and devastation of the Judean capital. The first volume of this study, published in 1984, presented an extensive introduction outlining the origins and development of the legend of St.Veronica as well as the texts of the two longest versions (A and B). This second volume contains the other seven families (from C through I): the Cura sanitatis Tiberii (mission of Volusian), the Nathanis Judaei legatio (Vindicta Salvatoris) and the versions that are found in the Bible en français ascribed to Roger d'Argentreuil or were influenced by the works of Flavius Josephus, Robert de Boron and Jacobus da Voragine. The edition of each of the seven manuscripts included here consists of the base text together with variants from any related manuscripts and explanatory notes. The volume includes appendices on line distribution and line concordances, a working bibliography, a common glossary, and an index of proper names.